How the sacking of a casual presenter tipped the ABC into turmoil

Ita Buttrose’s final farewell as chair of the ABC board in a few weeks’ time will be a speech-filled celebration at Studio 22, the broadcaster’s huge, high-tech production spaces in Ultimo, Sydney – a cocktail-attire swansong for one of the Australian media’s most celebrated women.

Few media executives will ever have a miniseries made about them.

But if the plan was to engineer a smooth transition from Buttrose to chair-in-waiting Kim Williams, that hope has been cruelled in the past fortnight by events few could have predicted.

The sacking in December of casual broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf prompted a racial discrimination claim in the Fair Work Commission, an editorial staff revolt, swingeing criticism from senior reporter John Lyons, and question marks at the ABC over vexed issues of diversity, bias and complaint handling.

Revelations in this masthead of complaints about Lattouf from a group of pro-Israel lawyers led to unionised staff in the news section voting no confidence in the managing director, David Anderson. In that Zoom meeting, Lyons, the ABC’s global affairs editor, described his employer’s response to critics as “embarrassing”.

Kim Williams will replace Ita Buttrose as chair at the ABC.Credit:

Buttrose’s reply was an emergency meeting of the board, a counter vote of confidence in Anderson, and a robust public statement calling staff complaints about the managing director “abhorrent and incorrect”. Director of news Justin Stevens, put out two long statements to staff, the second on Thursday detailing his own efforts to address the diversity issue.

As one close observer put it, the ABC has “tripled down” on Lattouf’s dismissal. Another is blunter. The national broadcaster, they say, is standing in a pool of blood after firing several shots into its own feet.

What they say these events reveal is the demoralisation in one of Australia’s most important cultural institutions. The sacking of Lattouf – hardly an ABC lifer – was simply the spark, they say, for an explosion that shows how well primed the broadcaster was after years of external criticism, government pressure, high-profile departures, and what some see as management inertia and absenteeism.

This is the ABC that Williams will walk into when he starts his term on March 6.

He knows it’s a big job. In a series of interviews this week, he described it as the “campfire of Australia”, with a “responsibility to national identity”. But it’s unclear if he knows how difficult it will be. The question now consuming the thousands who work there, and those with an interest in the ABC’s success, is whether Williams is the right man to fix it.

Activist and journalist

When the acting head of the ABC’s five capital city radio stations, Steve Ahern, had five shows to fill in the crucial Sydney mornings slot in the lead-up to Christmas, he turned to Lattouf. The stories and tone were to be feather-light, and she – a prominent freelance journalist, diversity advocate, author and commentator – could deliver.

What he should have known was that, in the two months before this appointment, she had also been an outspoken critic of Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza following the October 7 attack by Hamas. Among her social media posts were ones saying Israeli soldiers were “bloodthirsty” and had used rape as a weapon of war for the entirety of the country’s history. If the ABC did not know about these posts, as former Media Watch host and now ABC alumni chair Jonathan Holmes told Radio National on Wednesday, “it is, frankly, negligent”.

Intimately familiar with the role Lattouf would take on, the longtime host of the ABC Melbourne mornings, Jon Faine, says you “surrender yourself” and your opinions to take on a position of such influence.

“On Friday, Ms Lattouf was an activist, and on Monday she was an ABC presenter,” Faine says. “Well, that doesn’t work.”

According to the ABC’s version of events, before Lattouf had even finished her first day, Monday, December 18, managers informed her of a barrage of complaints against her, and she was warned not to post anything “controversial” on social media. The following day she reposted a Human Rights Watch story (that was also covered as a news story by the ABC) that reported Israel was using starvation as a tool of war in Gaza.

Soon after her shift finished on Wednesday, December 20, she was sacked. Many view the Human Rights Watch posts as a flimsy pretext.

“She clearly shouldn’t have been appointed,” says one former senior ABC journalist, “but once they did, management is obliged to protect, and be seen to protect her”.

Lattouf, citing other social media controversies involving white ABC journalists who were not subsequently sacked, alleges in court documents her race or cultural background as a “Lebanese/Arab/Middle Eastern” journalist formed part of the unlawful reason for her sacking, along with her political opinion. One of Australia’s top silks, senior counsel Noel Hutley, has come from defending Gina Rinehart (and the Transport Workers’ Union against Qantas) to join Lattouf’s legal team. (In its legalistic response, the ABC denies she was dismissed at all.)

In one sense, all that was at stake were two morning radio shifts of a casual reporter. It has puzzled many why Lattouf was not simply allowed to do them. But reporting in this masthead over the past week offered a rare glimpse into what was going on behind the scenes. At least two groups of pro-Israel activists, lawyers and creatives organised themselves in separate WhatsApp groups to trawl the media and social media to find instances in Lattouf’s posts of what they believe was antisemitism.

“Urgent call for any screenshots of Antoinette Latouff saying anything anti-Israel or antisemitic since Monday 18th,” wrote one poster on the group J.E.W.I.S.H. Australian creatives and academics.

Then they discussed their complaints to Buttrose and Anderson. Later, Lattouf was sacked.

If seeing the details of the campaign against her was enlightening, equally so was the way Buttrose responded.

‘I didn’t know’

In Buttrose’s response to the staff’s no-confidence motion, she said the ABC regularly received and responded to complaints “from individuals or organisations and the assumption that either the managing director as editor-in-chief or I would be influenced by any sort of lobbying pressure is quite simply wrong”.

That is not how it appears to either those doing the lobbying or, more importantly, her staff.

In one email response to WhatsApp group complainants, the ABC chair said their letter had been “noted” and “forwarded … to Chris Oliver-Taylor, the ABC’s chief content officer, who is dealing with this matter”. Buttrose thanked another letter writer for their email on the day Lattouf was sacked, adding: “You are probably unaware that Ms Lattouf no longer works at the ABC.”

“I don’t know how much our emails affected the decision but I’m impressed with their power,” said one letter writer on the Jewish creatives group after the sacking.

To some ABC staff, the revelation of Buttrose’s responses reminded them of a still simmering issue. Veteran broadcaster Stan Grant stood down in May last year, complaining he had received little to no support from the organisation’s management when he came under a barrage of criticism for his appearance on a panel discussion of King Charles’ coronation. Lyons said Grant had been “hung out to dry”.

Buttrose’s response to Grant’s distress was: “I didn’t know, and I don’t think many of us knew, until fairly late in the piece.” Two months later, in July, Buttrose responded to complaints from the Australian Monarchists League, saying: “I am sorry they were disappointed with our coverage.” Grant quit for good shortly after.

Buttrose was also accused of having a cloth ear when much-loved but veteran broadcaster Fran Kelly was given a Friday night TV gig. Criticised for failing to give opportunities to young or diverse up-and-comers, Buttrose dismissed the complaint as ageism, and the product of the “ignorance of youth”.

The quiet part

The ABC has tried vigorously, and made significant progress, in hiring culturally and linguistically diverse staff – something most media organisations have been bad at doing. But the day after Lattouf’s dismissal, news broke of federal politics reporter Nour Haydar’s resignation over the ABC’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza. She would soon after announce she was joining Guardian Australia.

Off the record, this masthead confirmed that a number of diverse staff on the ABC’s books were either leaving or considering doing so for similar reasons, subject to opportunities.

The quiet part was said out loud by Lyons at the Monday meeting: “They come for a while,” he said, “and then they’re out the door because they get a taste of what it’s like to work here for them.”

On the one hand, Jonathan Holmes said during the week, the ABC “needs to have different voices on air” – people hired for experiences that differ from those of many of the journalists and listeners.

“And at the same time, it can’t abandon – it’s legally obliged – to stick with independent journalism: to ensure news and current affairs are impartial and objective according to the usual standards of objective journalism. Riding these two horses at once can be very tricky.”

In a statement on Thursday, news director Stevens said he wanted a “constructive discussion … in coming weeks about diversity, impartiality and objectivity … Our diverse workforce is a major asset – in fact it can be a superpower for us.”

He conceded, though, that “if we’re honest with each other we still have a way to go”.

Many ABC journalists, many of whom are casual or on short-term contracts, complain that, confronted with increasingly hostile scrutiny from both the mainstream media and social media, they do not feel supported. Ethnically diverse staff are under particular pressure.

“It’s an organisation that wants things from you – diversity, and in journalism it wants you to take a risk, and then doesn’t support you,” said one recent employee who asked for anonymity to speak freely.

Some staff complain that the leadership team is “invisible”, particularly outside Sydney. Buttrose, they say, is out of touch and has not been on the front foot to defend the organisation. Anderson is the ABC’s editor-in-chief, but has no background in journalism – he comes from the entertainment side of the organisation.

ABC global affairs editor John Lyons, journalist, presenter and diversity advocate Antoinette Lattouf and ABC managing director David Anderson.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen; Supplied; Peter Morris

Lyons said a feeling that reporters were not adequately protected meant they had to self-censor to survive. “Many of us feel we are very much on our own,” he told Monday’s staff meeting.

In statements, Buttrose and Anderson both vigorously rejected these complaints, citing their resistance to “AFP raids, political pressure, powerful organisations … lobby groups”, not to mention hours in front of estimates committees facing hostile questions from senators.

Approached for interviews, both Anderson and Buttrose replied through statements from a spokesperson. Anderson often engages with staff, external stakeholders and audiences, and “takes every opportunity to discuss matters with individual ABC staff or groups of staff directly when they request a meeting over a relevant issue”, said the spokesperson.

Similarly, Buttrose often appears in media, at events and makes herself available to meet with colleagues on request, they said.

The events of the past fortnight, however, show that the mood within the ABC is delicate. It has lost the swagger that should come with being Australia’s best-funded and most-trusted media organisation.

‘The most important decision’

Into all this walks Kim Williams.

Unlike Buttrose, he is not a media doyen. However, he is no stranger to the publishing and broadcasting industries. In an interview with this masthead on Wednesday, he seemed to struggle with how to pitch himself. Reciting his portfolio career experience, he said he was “as qualified as anyone” for the job, then quickly insisted it was neither “grandiloquent, self-congratulatory or pompous” for him to say so.

He comes without one item of baggage that Buttrose carried: unlike her, he was not the prime minister’s “captain’s pick”; he applied for the job and was among the candidates recommended by the independent committee whose job it is to do this. Even so, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised him and, as Elizabeth Knight pointed out in this masthead, “being married to Gough Whitlam’s daughter Catherine, he is minor royalty in the Labor Party”.

He is presented with one handicap, however: he will not get to pick his managing director. On February 21 last year, 15 months before his contract would end, Buttrose’s ABC board unanimously reappointed Anderson until mid-2028.

“The most important decision the board has is to appoint the managing director. If I were Kim, I might be a little pissed off,” ABC veteran Jonathan Holmes said.

So what can Williams achieve as chair? Says Faine: “The board sets policy. They don’t direct programs, but they do set a culture.”

Under Buttrose, he says, the culture was risk-averse. Complaints were viewed as “some sort of mark against you”, rather than a measure that you were doing your job.

“Kim’s not shy; you might have noticed. So if he takes on that role to be the public champion for the ABC, well, great, go for it. Someone has to because the ABC is the whipping boy, in particular for Murdoch interests in Australia.”

A past board member, speaking anonymously to avoid being seen to intervene, stresses Williams’ job is a “subtle” one. He cannot run the organisation himself; what power he has must be wielded through management.

“It’s not necessarily easy to effect change at the ABC, assuming you believe it’s necessary,” the former board member said.

The new chairman, a former News Corp executive, certainly seems to think change is required. In a whirlwind week of interviews, Williams called for more arts coverage, more innovation, “freedom from bias”, civility among staff, and more cultural diversity. The ABC should not, he said, be loud in self-congratulation, rather “loud in its performance”. Defending its position it should be “not only grandiloquent but calm, measured and authoritative”.

And he wants it to pay attention to people like John Lyons. Of the senior reporter’s words, which caused such consternation at board level on Monday, Williams said: “One would be erring if one didn’t listen closely to that feedback.”

For now, he’s got the luxury of commenting from the outside. From March 6, he’ll be the man at the helm.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.